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Over two billion people followed Chinese actor Ryan Zhu as he stayed in a Finnish airport for 30 days. The #LIFEINHEL campaign gave Helsinki Airport not only publicity, but also concrete tips on how to make Chinese passengers happier with their services.

From October 10 to November 8, 2017, Zhu stayed in an eight square metre wooden cabin in Helsinki Airport’s non-Shengen terminal as part of a PR campaign for the airport, described as “Truman Show meets The Terminal”.

During his month-long stay, the 33-year old Chinese media personality was given all sorts of tasks; he made cappuccinos at a café, worked at the Chinese help desk, organised a party at his cabin, went to a sauna and ate Finnish food, while millions of people worldwide followed via daily videos promoted on social media.

“I got to teach fitness to travellers, made friends with people from all over the world, and even got to skateboard on the runway,” said Ryan as he listed some of his best experiences at the airport in an email to gbtimes.com.

The videos of the life of Ryan in the terminal have so far been watched over 11 million times, and the whole campaign’s media reach globally is more than 2.2 billion people, according the company behind the campaign.

The best airport in the world?

The idea for the unusual campaign came from the fact that Helsinki was named the world’s best airport in 2017 by the online travel agency Travellink.

“As the competition between airports is getting tighter, we wanted to put ourselves to the test,” explains Katja Siberg, senior Vice president for marketing and communications at Finavia. The company runs 21 Finnish airports including Helsinki, which serviced more than 18.9 million passengers last year.

Though few travellers plan their travels based on what airports they like the most, “on trips with long layovers, the customer experience does, however, count”, says Siberg, citing a survey compiled by Statistics Finland, Cint AB and Finavia, which shows that one in every three passengers chooses their flight routes based on the transfer airport.

Finland markets itself as the shortest route between Europa and Asia, and national airline Finnair and airport operator Finavia do their utmost to accommodate Asian customers in general and Chinese in particular.

Special services for Chinese

The reason Ryan Zhu was chosen as the main character of the #LIFEINHEL campaign is that he is an “outgoing, young and trendy adult, who is ready for challenges and in good mental and physical condition”, says Siberg. Then, of course, he is Chinese, who can communicate to his compatriots what Helsinki Airport has to offer.

“In Helsinki Airport, there are custom-designed hot water dispensers for the Chinese, which is very sweet. Besides, Helsinki Airport has set up a special help desk for Chinese passengers and can offer Chinese-speaking customer service and shopping guides. I can feel how much attention and care the airport has given to my fellow Chinese tourists. I also worked at that help desk while I stayed here at the airport – which was really fun,” says Ryan.

In his final report, Ryan Zhu presents some thoughts on to how to make Chinese customers feel more welcome, with, for example, more Chinese-speaking staff and restaurants serving Chinese food. Katja Siberg acknowledges the feedback and explains that an ongoing development of Helsinki Airport will soon give more space for Asian restaurants.

“I kind of missed rice, but in Helsinki Airport I survived without Chinese food,” Ryan explains, adding how it warmed his heart when a Chinese staff member made him Chinese dumplings.

Sleepless nights

The thing that Ryan missed the most during his 30 days in the terminal had nothing to do with his Chinese heritage, but is rather universal. “I missed my own bed,” he admits.

“It has been very hard to get proper sleep. I was woken up all the time by airport announcements, passengers passing by in the middle of the night and kids that came and knocked on my door, wondering if there was really a person living inside the cabin.”

Is Helsinki then the best airport in the world? “Undoubtedly, for me it is,” concludes Ryan Zhu, who after his 30 days in 'HEL' was rewarded with a trip to Lapland with his family.

Sara Steensig
is an editor at gbtimes.com. Sara has written China related stories since 2008. She is responsible for our Danish site dk.gbtimes.com and also writes for the English gbtimes site.